SQUIRREL!!!!

Because “We need to pass the bill so you can see what’s in it” was SOOOO adult!

Johnathan Cohn isn’t the first to use the “grown-up” meme, but he’s happily amplifying it and passing it along! He writes:

For a while now, Tea Party Republicans like Senator Mike Lee, who unseated the insufficiently conservative Robert Bennett in Utah, have been threatening to vote against the debt ceiling increase unless they win substantial reductions in government spending. Idle threats about refusing to raise the debt ceiling are nothing new, but the Tea Party crowd seems quite serious about it–in part because they’ve promised their base they’re going to do it.

“seems quite serious about it“…. Well Duh!!! If you’re going to make a threat, it probably works better if you seem serious, don’t you think? Because, in Cohn’s world, it’s only OK to make noise about something as long as you’re not serious…. Like the Senate Democrats, including Harry Reid, who voted “NO” on raising the debt ceiling in 2006:

The increase in the debt limit brought the total increase during the Bush administration to $3 trillion. Democrats said the rising debt was the consequence of what they described as a reckless Republican fiscal policy centered on tax cuts for the affluent.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, said Thursday that given Mr. Bush’s record, “I really do believe this man will go down as the worst president this country has ever had.”

Few Republicans took the floor to defend the debt limit request, and three — Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Conrad Burns of Montana and John Ensign of Nevada — joined all Democrats in opposing the increase.

Oops! But, since they were the minority party at the time, it was a safe, meaningless, non-serious vote. So it was OK I guess.

As many others have noted, the demand of going back to 2008 spending levels is radical and, not coincidentally, highly unrealistic…

So, cutting government spend to a level seen a mere three years ago is “radical and, not coincidentally, highly unrealistic“, but cutting CO2 emission to 1990 levels, or better yet, by 80% is perfectly acceptable, and completely realistic. It seems as long as government spending is concerned, something they’re intimately familiar with, Democrats understand the consequences of putting a cap on it, but when it comes to destroying economic growth via a cap in CO2 emissions….

PS. Because I know someone will come back and ask “Where were the Conservatives when Bush was accumulating all his debt?”. Here’s a reminder – It was there. It’s just know one listened.